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ANDREW JACKSON, 






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PROCLAMATION 



OF 



ANDREW JACKSO 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



TO THE 



PEOPLE OE SOUTH CAROLINA, 



DECEMBER 10, 1832. 



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HARRISBURG: 

SINGERLY & MYERS, STATE PRINTERS, 
1864. 



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3 



PROCLAMATION. 



Whereas, A convention assembled in the State of South Carolina, have 
passed an ordinance by which they declare, "That the several acts and 
parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws 
for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign com- 
modities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United 
States, and more especially" two acts, for the same purposes, passed on the 
29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1S32, " are unauthorized hj 
the Constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and in- 
tent thereof, and are null and void, and no law," nor binding on the citizens 
of that State or its officers ; and by the said ordinance it is further declared 
to be unlawful for any of the constituted authorities of the State, or of the 
United States, to enforce the payment of the duties imposed by the said acts 
within the same State, and that it is the duty of the Legislature to pass 
such laws as may be necessary to give full effect to the said ordinance : 

And ivhereas, By the said ordinance it is further ordained, that, in no 
case of law or equity decided in the courts of said State, wherein shall ba 
drawn in question the validity of the said ordinance, or of the acts of the 
Legislature that may be passed to give it efleet, or of the said laws of the 
United States, no appeal shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of the Uni- 
ted States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that 
purpose ; and that any person attempting to take such appeal shall be pun- 
ished as for a contempt of court. 

And, finally, the said ordinance declares that the people of South Caro- 
lina will maintain the said ordinance at every hazard, aud that they will 
consider the passage of any act by Congress abolishing or closing the ports 
of the said State, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress or egress of ves- 
Bels to and from the said ports, or any other act of the federal government 
to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or 
to enforce the said acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the 
country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in 
the Union ; and that the people of the said State will thenceforth hold them- 
selves absolved from all further obligations to maintain or preserve their 
political connection with the people of the other States, and will forthwith 
proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other acts and thingis 
which sovereign and independent States may of right do : 

And whereas, The said ordinance prescribes to the people of South Caro- 
lina a course of conduct in direct violation of their duty as citizens of the 
United States, contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its Con- 
stitution, and having for its object the destruction of the Union — that Union 
which, coevil with our political existence, led our fathers, without any other 
ties to unite them than those of patriotism and a common cause, through a 
Sftoguinary struggle to a glorious independence — that sacred Union, hithert© 



iuviolate, which, perfected by our happy Constitution, has brought us, by 
the favor of Heaven, to a state of prospert}^ at home and high considera- 
tion abroad, rarely, if ever, equaled in the history of nations. To preserve 
this bond of our political existence from destruction, to maintain inviohite 
this state of national honor and prosperity, and to justify the conlid.)nce my 
fellow-citizens have reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the 
TJnited States, have thought proper to issue this, my proclamation, stating 
my views of the Constitution and laws applicable to the measures adopted 
by the convention of South Carolina, and to the reasons they have put forth 
to sustain them, declaring the course which duty will require me to pursue, 
and, appealing to the understanding and patriotism of the people, warn them 
of the consequences that must inevitably result from an observance of the 
dictates of the convention. Strict duty would require of me nothing more 
than the exercise of those powers with which I am now or may hereafter 
be invested, for preserving the peace of the Union, and for the execution of 
the laws. But the imposing aspect which opposition has assumed in this 
case, by clothing itself with State authority, and the deep interest which 
the people of the Uhited States must all feel in preventing a resort to stron- 
ger measures, while there is a hope that anything will be yielded to rea- 
soning and remonstrance, perhaps demand, and will certainly justify a full 
exposition, to South Carolina and the nation, of the views I entertain of 
this important question, as well as a distinct enunciation of the course which 
my sense of duty will require me to pursue. 

The ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible right of resisting acts 
which are plainly unconstitutional and too oppressive to be endured, but 
on the strange position that any one State may not only declare an act of 
Congress void, but prohibit its execution — that they may do this consist- 
ently with the Constitution — that the true construciion of that instrument 
permits a State to retain its place in the Union, and yet be bound by no 
other of its laws than those it may choose to consider as constitutional. It 
is true, they add, that, to justify this abrogation of a law, it must be pal- 
pably contrary to the Constitution ; but it is evident that to give the right 
of resisting laws of that description, coupled with the uncontrolled right 
to decide what laws deserve tiiat character, is to give the power of re- 
siisting all laws. For, as by the theory there is no appeal, the reasons 
alleged by the State, good or bad, must prevail. If it should be said that 
public opinion is a sufficient check against the abuse of this power, it may 
be asked why it is not deemed a sufficient guard against the passage of an 
unconstitutional act by Congress. There is, however, a restraint in this 
last case, which makes the assumed ])ower of a State more indefensible, and 
which does nut exist in the other. There are two appeals from an uncon- 
stitutional act passed by Congress — one to the judiciary, the other to the 
people and the States. There is no appeal from the State decision in the- 
ory ; and the practical illustration shows that the courts are closed against 
.an application to review it, both judges and jurors being sworn to decide 
in its favor. But reasoning on this subject is superfluous when our social 
compact in express terms declares that the laws of the United States, its 
Constitution, and treaties made under it, are the supreme law of the land ; 
and for greater caution, adds: "that the jadges in every State shall be 
bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the con- 
trary notwithstanding." And it may be asserted, without fear of refuta- 
tion, that no federative government could exist without a similar provision. 
Look for a moment to the consequences. If South Carolina considers the 
revenue laws unconstitutional, and has a right to prevent their execution 
in the port of Charleston, there would be a clear constitutional objection to 



their collection in every other port, and no revenue could be collected any- 
where, for all imposts must be equal. It is no answer to rei)cat that an 
unconstitutional law is no law, so long as the question of its legality is to 
be decided by the State itself; for every law operating injuriously upon 
any local interest will be, perhaps, thought and certaiuly represented as 
unconstitutional, and, as has been shown, there is no appeal. 

Jf this doctrine had been established at an earlier day, the Union would 
have been dissolved in its infancy. The excise law in Pennsylvania, the 
embargo and non-intercourse law in the eastern States, the carriage tax in 
Virginia, were all deemed unconstitutional, and were more unequal in their 
operation than any of the laws now complained of; but fortunately none of 
those States discovered that they had the right now claimed by South Caro- 
lina. The war into which we were forced to support the dignity of the 
nation and the rights of our citizens, might have ended in defeat and dis- 
grace, instead of victory and honor, if the State who supposed it a ruinous 
and unconstitutional measure, had thought they possessed the right of nulli- 
fying the act by which it was declared, and denying supplies for its prosecu- 
tion. Hardly and unequally as those measures bore upon several members 
of the Union, to the Legislatures of none did this eflicient and peaceabk 
remedy, as it is called, suggest itself. The discovery of this important fea- 
ture in our Constitution was preserved to the present day. To the states- 
men of South Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of that 
State will unfortunately fallthe evils of reducing it to practice. 

If the doctrine of a State veto upon the laws of the Union carries with it 
internal evidence of its impracticable absurdity, our constitutional history 
will also afford abundant proof that it would have been repudiated with in- 
dignation had it been proposed to form a feature in our government. 

In our colonial state, although dependent on another power, we very early 
considered ourselves as connected by common interest with each other. — 
Leagues were formed for common defence, and before the declaration of in- 
dependence, we were known in our aggregate character as the United Col- 
onies OF America. That decisive and important step was taken jointly. AVe 
declared ourselves a nation by a joint, not by several acts; and when the 
terms of our confederation were reduced to form, it was in that of a solemn 
league of several States, by which they agreed that they would, collectively, 
form one nation for the purpose of conducting some certain domestic con- 
cerns, and all foreign relations. In the instrument forming that Union, is 
found an article which declares that "every State shall abide by the deter- 
minations of Congress on all questions which by that confederation should 
be submitted to them." 

Under the confederation, then, no State could legally annul a decision of 
Congress, or refuse to submit to its execution ; but no provision was made 
to enforce these decisions. Congress made requisitions, but they were not 
complied with. The government could not operate on individuals. They 
had no judiciary, no means of collecting revenues. 

But the defects of the confederation need not be detailed. Under its 
operation we could scarcely be called a nation. We had neither prosperity 
at home nor considerat'on abroad. This state of things could not be en- 
dured, and our present happy Constitution was formed, but formed in vain, 
if this fatal doctrine prevails. It was formed for important objects that are 
announced in the preamble, made in the name and by the authorit}' of the 
people of the U^nited States, whose delegates framed, and whose conven- 
tions approved it. The most important among these objects, that which i* 
placed first in rank, on which all the others rest, is "to form a more jierfect 
Union." Xow, i« it possible, that oven if there were no express provision 



6 

giving sapremacy to the Constitution and laws of the tJnited States over 
those of the State, it can be conceived, that an instrument made for the 
purpose of "forming- a more perfect Union" than that of the confederation, 
could be so construed by the assembled wisdom of our country, as to sub* 
stitute for that confederation a form of government dependent for its exist- 
ence on the local interest, the party spirit of a State, or of a prevailing fac* 
tion in a State ? Every man of }dain, unsophisticated understanding, who 
hears the question, will give such an answer as will preserve the Union. 
Metaphysical subtlety in pursuit of an impracticable theory, could alone 
have devised one that is calculated to destroy it. 

f consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed 
by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted 
expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, in- 
consistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of 
the great object for which it was formed. 

After this general view of the leading principle, we must examine th« 
particular application of it which is made in the ordinance. 

The preamble rests its justification on these grounds : It assumes as a 
fact, that the obnoxious laws, although they purport to be laws for raising 
revenue, were, in reality, intended for the protection of manufactures, which 
purpose it asserts to be unconstitutional — that the operation of these laws 
is unequal — that the amount raised by them is greater than is required by 
the wants of the government — and finally, that the proceeds are to be 
applied to objects unauthorized by the Constitution. These are the only 
causes alleged to justify an open opposition to the laws of the country, and 
a threat of seceding from the Union, if any attempt should be made to en- 
force them. The first virtually acknowledges that the law in question was 
passed under a power expressly given by the Constitution, to lay and col- 
lect imposts ; but its constitutionality is drawn in question from the motivcR 
of those who passed it. However apparent this purpose may be in the 
}>resent case, nothing can be more dangerous than to admit the position, 
that an unconstitutional purpose, entertained by the members who assent 
to a law enacted under a constitutional power, shall make that )av/ void ; 
for how is that purpose to be ascertained ? Who is to make the scrutiny ? 
How often may bad purposes be falsely imputed ? In how many cases are 
they concealed by false professions ? In how many is no declaration of 
motive made ? Admit this doctrine, and you give to the States an uncon- 
trolled right to decide, and every law may be annulled under this pretext. 
If, therefore, the absurd and dangerous doctrine should be admitted that a 
State may annul an unconstitutional lav/, or one that it deems such, it w,ill 
not apply to the present case. 

The next objection is, that the laws in question operate unequally. This 
objection may be made, with truth, to every law that has been or can be 
passed. The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that 
would operate with perfect equality. Jf the unequal operatioii of a law 
makes it unconstitutional, and if all laws of that description may be abro- 
gated by au}^ State for that cause, .th5u indeed is the Federal Constitution 
unworthy of the slighest effort for its preservation. We have hitherto re- 
lied on it as the perpetual bond of our Union. We have received it as the 
work of the assembled wisdom of the nation. We have trusted to it as to 
the sheet anchor of our safety, in the stormy times of conflict with a foreign 
or domestic foe. We have looked to it with sacred awe, as the palladium 
of our liberties, and with all the solemnities of religion, have pledged to 
eaciis other our lives and fortunes here, .and our hopes of happiness hereaf- 
ter in its defence and support. Were we mistaken, ray countrymen, in at- 



Inching this importance to the Constitution of our country ? Was our de- 
votion paid to the wretched, inefficient, clumsy contrivance which tliis new 
doctrine would make it ? Did we pledge ourselves to the support of an airy 
nothing — a bubble that must be blown away by the first breath of disaffec- 
tion ? Was this self-destroying, visionary theory, the work of the profound 
statesmen, the exalted patriots to whom the task of constitutional reform 
was intrusted ? Did the name of Washington sanction, did the States de- 
liberately ratify such an anomoly in the history of fundamental legislation ? 
No. We were not mistaken 1 The letter of this great instrument is free 
from this radical fault ; its language directly contradicts the imputation ; 
its spirit — its evident intent — contradicts it. No, we did not err 1 Our 
Constitution does not contain the absurdity of giving power to make laws, 
and another power to resist them. The sages, whose memory will always 
be reverenced, have given us a practical, and as they hoped, a permanent 
CLrtistitutional compact. The father of his country did not affix his revered 
name to so palpable an absurdity. Nor did the States, when they sever- 
ally ratified it, do so under the impression, that a veto on the laws of the 
United States was reserved to them, or that they could exercise it by im- 
plication. Search the debates of all their conventions — examine the speeches 
&f the most zealous opposers of federal authority — look at the amendments 
that were proposed. They are all silent — not a syllable uttered, not a vote 
given, not a motion made to correct the explicit supremacy given to the 
laws of the Union over those of the State — or to show that implication, as is 
now contended, could defeat it. No, we have not erred ! The Constitu- 
tion is still the object of our reverence, the bond of our Union, our defence 
in danger, the source of our prosperity and peace. It shall descend as we 
have received it, uncorrupted by sophistical construction to our posterity ; 
and the sacrifices of local interests, of State pejudices, of personal animosi- 
ties, that were made to bring it into existence, will again be patriotically 
offered for its support. 

The two remaining objections, made by the ordinance to these laws, are, 
that the sums intended to be raised by them, are greater than are required, 
and that the proceeds will be unconstitutionally employed. The Constitu- 
tion has expressly given to Congress the right of raising revenue, and of 
determining the sum the public exigencies will require. The States have no 
control over the exercise of this right, other than that which results from the 
power of changing the representatives who abuse it, and thus procure re- 
dress. 

Congress may, undoubtedly, abuse this discretionary power, but the same 
may be said of others with which they are vested. Yet the discretion must 
exist somewhere. The Constitution has given it to the representatives of 
all the people, checked by the representatives of the States, and hj the ex- 
ecutive power. The South Carolina construction gives it to the Legisla- 
ture, or the convention of a single State ; where neither the people of the 
different States, nor the State in their separate capacity, nor the chief mag- 
istrate, elected by the people, have any representation. Which is the most 
discreet disposition of the power ? I do not ask you, fellow-citizens, which 
is the constitutional disposition — that instrument speaks a language not to 
])Q misunderstood. But if you were assembled in general convention, which 
would you think the safest depository of this discretionary power in the 
last resort ? Would you add a clause, giving it to each of the States ; or 
would you sanction the wise provisions already made by your Constitution ? 
If this should be the result of your deliberations, when, providing for the 
future, are you — can you be — ready to risk all that you hold dear, to estab- 
lish, for a temporary and local purpose, that which you. must acknowledge 



8 

to be destructive, and even absurd, as a general provision ? Carry out the 
consequence of this right vested in the different States, and you must per- 
ceive that the crisis your conduct presents at this day, woukl recur when- 
ever auy law of the United States displeased any of the States, and that 
we should soon cease to be a nation. 

The oi'dinance, with the same knowledge of the future that characterizes 
a former objection, tells you that the proceeds of the tax will be unconstitu- 
tionally applied. If this could be ascertained with certainty, the objection 
would, with more propriety, be reserved for the law so applying the pro- 
ceeds, but surely cannot be urged against the laws levying the duty. 

These are the allegations contained in the ordinance. Examine them 
seriously, my fellow-citizens — judge for yourselves. I appeal to you to de- 
termine whether they are so clear, so convincing, as to leave no doubt of 
their correctness; and even if you should come to this conclusion, how far 
they justif^^ the reckless, destructive course, which 3''ou are directed to pur- 
sue. Review these objections, and the conclusions drawn from them once 
more. What are they? Every. law, then, for raising revenue, according 
to the South Carolina ordinance, may be rightfully annulled, unless it be so 
framed as no law ever will or can be framed. Congress has a right to pa?.* 
laws for raising revenue, and each State has a right to oppose their execu- 
tion — two rights directly opposed to each other ; and yet is this absurdity, 
supposed to be contained in an instrument drawn for the express purpose 
of avoiding collisions between the States and the general government, by 
an assembiv of the most enlightened statesmen and purest patriots ever em- 
bodied for a similar purpose. 

In vain have these sages declared that Congress shall have power to lay 
aud collect taxes, duties, imposts and excise — in vain have they provided 
that they shall have power to pass laws which shall be necessary and pro- 
per to carry those powers into execution ; that those laws and that Con- 
stitution shall be the "supreme law of the land; and that the judges in 
every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of 
any State to the contrary notwithstanding. " In vain have the people of 
the several States solemnly sanctioned these provisions, made them their 
paramount law, and individually sworn to support them whenever they 
were called on to execute any office. Yain provisions ! ineffectual restric- 
tions ! vile profanation of oaths ! miserable mockery of legislation ! if a bare 
majority of the voters in auy one State may, on a real or supposed know- 
ledge of the intent with which a law has been passed, declare themselvo.* 
free from its operation — say here it gives too little, there too much, and 
operates unequally — hero itsuifers articles to be free that ought to be taxed, 
there it taxes those that ought to be free — in this case the proceeds are 
intended to be applied to purposes which we do not approve, in that, the 
amount raised is more than is wanted. Congress, it is true, are invested by 
the Constitution with tiie right of deciding these questions according to 
their sound discretion. Congress is composed of the representatives of all 
the States, and of all the people of all the States ; but we, part of the peo- 
ple of one State, to whom the Constitution has given no power on the sub- 
ject, from whom it has expressly taken it away — we, who have solemnly 
agreed that this Constitution shall be our law — ice, most of whom have 
sworn to support it — ice now abrogate this law, and swear, and force others 
to swear, that it shall not be obeyed — and we do this, not because Congress 
have no right to pass such laws ; this we do not allege ; but because thej 
have passed them with improper views. They are unconstitutional from 
the motives of those who passed them, which we can never with certainty 
know, from their unequal operation ; although it is impossible, from the na- 



tnre of things, that they should be equal — and from the disposition which 
we presume may be made of their proceeds, although that disposition has 
not been declared. This is the plain meaning of the ordinance in relation 
to laws which it abrogates for alleged unconstitutionality. But it does not 
stop there. It repeals, in express terms, an important part of the Consti- 
tution itself, and of laws passed to give it effect, which have never been 
alleged to be unconstitutional. The Constitution declares that the judicial 
powers of the United States extend to cases arising under the laws of the 
United States, and that such laws, the Constitution and treaties shall be 
paramount to the State constitutions and laws. The judiciary act prescribes 
the mode by which the case may be brought before a court of the United 
States, by appeal, when a State tribunal shall decide against this provision 
of the Constitution. The ordinance declares there shall be no appeal ; makes 
the State laws paramount to the Constitution and laws of the United States ; 
forces judges and jurors to swear that they will disregard their provisions; 
and even makes it penal in a suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It further 
declares that it shall not be lawful for the authorities of the United States, 
or of that State, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the revenue 
laws within its limits. 

Here is a law of the United States, not even pretended to be unconstitu- 
tional, repealed by the authority of a small majority of the voters of a single 
State. Here is a provision of the Constitution which is solemnly abrogated 
by the same authority. 

On such expositions and reasonings the ordinance grounds not only an 
assertion of the right to annul the laws of which it complains, but to enforce 
it. by a threat of seceding from the Union, if any attempt is made to execute 
them. 

This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the Constitution, which 
they say, is a compact between sovereign States, who have preserved their 
whole sovereigoty, and, therefore, are subject to no superior ; that, because 
they made the compact, they can break it when, in their opinion, it has been 
departed from by the other States. Fallacious as this course of reasoning 
is, it enlists State pride, and finds advocates in the honest prejudices of those 
who have not studied the nature of our government sufficiently to see the 
radical error on which it rests. 

The people of the United States formed the Constitution, acting through 
the State Legislatures in making the compact, to meet and discuss its pro- 
visions, and acting in separate conventions when they ratified those pro- 
visions ; but the terms used in its construction, show it to be a government 
in which the people of all the States collectively are represented. We are 
one paople in the choice of the President and Vice President. Here the 
States have no other agency than to direct the mode in which the votes shall 
be given. The candidates having the majority of all the votes are chosen. 
The electors of a majority of States may have given their votes for one can- 
didate, and yet another may be chosen. The people, then, and not the 
States, are represented in the executive branch. 

In the House of Representatives there is this difference, that the people 
of one State do not, as in the case of President and Vice President, all vote 
for the same officers. The people of all the States do not vote for all the 
members, each State electing only its own representatives. But this creates 
no material distinction. When chosen, tney are all representatives of the 
United States, not representatives of the particular State from which they 
come. They are paid by the United States, not by the State ; nor are 
they accountable to it for any act done in the performance of their legisla- 
tive functions ; and however they may in practice, as it is their duty to do, 



10 

consult and prefer the interests of their particular constituents when they 
come in conflict with any other partial or local interest, yet it is their first 
and highest duty, as representatives of the United States, to promote the 
general good. 

The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a government, not a 
league ; and whether it be formed by compact between the States, or in any 
other manner, its character is the same. It is a goverument in which all 
the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individu- 
ally, not upon the Staies ; they retained all the power they did not grant. 
But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as to consti- 
tute jointly with the other States a single nation, cannot, from that period, 
possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, 
but destroys the unity of a nation, and any injury to that uuity is not only 
a breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is 
an offence against the whole Union. To say that any State may at plea- 
sure secede from the Union, is to say that the United States is not a nation ; 
because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might 
dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without 
committing any oft'ence. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may 
be morally justified by the extremity of oppression ; but to call it a constitu- 
tional right, is confounding the meaning of terms; and can only be done 
through gross error, or to deceive chose who are willing to assert a right, 
but would pause before they made a revolution, or incur the penalties con- 
sequent on a failure. 

Because the Union was formed bj compact, it is said the parties to that 
compact may, when they feel themselves aggrieved, depart from it; but it is 
precisely because it is a compact that they cannot. A compact is an agree- 
ment or binding obligation. It may, by its terms, have a sanction or 
penalty for its breach, or it may not. If it contains no sanction, it may be 
broken with no other consequence than moral guilt; if it have a saiiction, 
then the breach incurs the designated or implied penalty. A league between 
independent nations, generally, has no sanction other than a moral one ; or, 
if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common superior, it cannot be 
enforced. A government, on the contrary, always has a sanction, expressed 
or implied ; and, in our case, it is both necessarily implied and expressly 
given. An attempt by force of arms to destroy a government, is an offence, 
by whatever means the constitutional compact may have been formed ; and 
such government has the right, by the law of self-defence, to pass acts for 
punishing the offender, unless that right is modified, restrained or resumed, 
by the constitutional act. In our system, although it is modified in the case 
of treason, yet authority is expressly given to pass all laws necessary to 
carry its powers into effect, and under this grant provision has been made 
for punishing acts which obstruct the due administration of the laws. 

It would seem superfliuous to add anything to show the nature of that 
union which connects us ; but as erroneous opinions on this subject are the 
foundation of doctrines the most destructive to our peace, I must give some 
further development to my views on this su])ject. No one, fellow-citizens, 
has a higher reverence for the reserved rights of the State, than the magis- 
trate who now addresses you. No one would make greater personal sac- 
rifices, or otficial exertions, to defend them from violation ; but equal care 
must be taken to prevent on their part an improper interference with, or 
resumption of the rights they have vested in the nation. The line has been 
so distinctly drawn as to avoid doubts in some cases of the exercise of 
power. Men of the best intentions and soundest views may differ in their 
construction of some parts of the Constitution ; but there are others on which 



11 

dispassionate reflection can leave no doubt. Of this nature appears to be 
the assumed right of secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged 
undivided sovereignty of the States, and on ttieir having formed in this sov- 
ereign capacit}^ a compact which is called the Constitution, from which, be- 
cause thev made it the}" have the right to secede. Both of these positions 
are erroneous, and some of the arguments to prove them so have been an- 
ticipated. 

The States severally have not retained their entire sovereignty. It has 
been shown that in becoming parts of a nation, not members of a league, 
they surrendered many of their essential parts of sovereignty. The right to 
make treaties — declare war — levy taxes — exercise exclusive judicial and 
legislative powers — were all of them functions of sovereign power. The 
States, then, for all these important purposes, were no longer sovereign. — 
The allegiance of their citizens was transferred, in the first instance, to the 
government of the United States — they became Americau citizens, and owed 
obedience to the Constitution of the United States, and to laws made 
in conformity with th<3 powers it vested in Congress. This last position has 
not been and cannot be denied. How then can that State be said to be 
sovereign and independent, whose citizens owe ob-edience to laws not made 
by it, and whose magistrates are sworn to disregard those laws when they 
come in conflict with those passed by another ? What shows conclusively 
that the States cannot be said to have reserved an undivided sovereignty, 
is, that they expressly ceded the right to punish treason — not treason against 
their separate power — but treason against the United States. Treason is an 
offence against sovereignty; and sovereignty must reside with the power to 
punish it. But the reserved rights of th'O States are not less sacred, because 
they have for their common interest made the general government the de- 
pository of these powers. 

The unity of onr political character (as has been shown for another pur- 
pose) commenced with its very existence. Under the royal government we 
had no separate character^ — our opposition to its oppressions began as Uni- 
ted Colonies. We were the United States under the confederation, and the 
name was perpetuated, and the Union rendered more perfect, by the federal 
Constitution. In none of these stages did w^e consider ourselves in any 
other light than as forming one nation. Treaties and alliances were made 
in the name of all. Troops were raised for the joint defence. How, then, 
with all these proofs that, under all changes of our position, we had, for 
designated purposes and with defined powers, created national governments 
— how is it, that the most perfect of those several modes of union should 
now be considered as a mere league, that may be dissolved at pleasure ? It 
is from an abuse of terms. Compact is used as synonymous with league, 
although the true term is not employed, because it would at once show the 
fallacy of the reasoning. It would not do to say that our Constitution was 
only a league, but, it is labored to prove it a compact, (which, in one sense 
it is,) and then to argue that as a league is a compact, every compact be- 
tween nations must of course be a league, and that from such an engage- 
ment every sovereifcu power has a right to secede. But it has been shown 
that in this sense the Stales are not sovereign, and that even if they were, 
and the national Constitution had been formed by a compact, there would; 
be no right in any one State to exonerate itself from its obligations. 

So obvious are the reasons which forbid this secession, that it is neces- 
sary only to allude to them. The Union was formed for the benefit of all. 
Jt was produced by mutual sacrifices of interests and opinions. Can those 
sacrifices be recalled? Can the States, who magnanimously surrendered 
their title to the territories of the west, recall the grant ? Will the inhabi- 



12 

tants of the inland States agree to pay the duties that may be imposed 
without their assent, by those on the Atlantic or the Gulf, for their own 
benefit ? Shall there be a free port in one State, and onerous duties in 
another ? No one believes that any right exists in a single State to involve 
all the others in these and countless other evils, contrary to the engagement 
solemnly made. Every one must see that the other States, in self-defence, 
must oppose it at all hazards. 

These are the alternatives that arc presented by the convention ; a repeal 
of all the acts for raising revenue, leaving the government without the means 
of support, or an acquiescence in the dissolution of the Union by the seces- 
sion of one of its members. When the first was proposed, it was known 
that it could not be listened to for a moment. It was known, if force was 
applied to oppose the execution of the laws, that it must be repelled by 
force — that Congress couU not, without involving itself in disgrace, and 
the country in ruin, accede to the proposition ; and yet, if this is not done 
in a given day, or if any attempt is made to execute the laws, the State is, 
by the oroinance, declared to be out of the Union. The majority of a con- 
vention asseml)led for that purpose, have dictated these terms, or rather 
this rejection of all terms, in the name of the people of South Carolina. It 
is true, that the Governor of the State speaks of the submission of their 
grievances to a convention of all the States; which, he says, they "sin- 
cerely and anxiously seek and desire." Yet this obvious and constitutional 
mode of obtainiug the sense of the other States, on the construction of the 
federal compact, and amending it, if necessary, has never been attempted 
by those who have urged the State on this destructive measure. The State 
might have proposed the call for a general convention, to the other States, 
and Congress, if a sufficient number of them concurred, must have called it. 
But the first magistrate of South Carolina, when he expressed a hope that, 
*'on a review by Congress and the functionaries of the general government 
of the merits of the controversy," such a convention will be accorded to 
them, must have known that neither Congress nor any functionary of the 
general government has authority to call such a convention, unless it be de- 
manded by two-thirds of the States. This suggestion, then, is another in- 
stance of the reckless inattention to the provisions of the Constitution with 
which this crisis has been madly hurried on ; or of the attempt to persuade 
the people that a constitutional remedy had been sought and refused. W 
the Legislature of South Corolina "anxiously desired" a general conven- 
tion to consider their complaints, why have they not made application for 
it in the way the Constitution points out ? The assertion that they "ear- 
n-estly seek" it, is completely negatived by the omission. 

. This, then, is the position in which we stand. A small majority of th« 
citizens of one State in the Union have elected delegates to a State conven- 
tion ; that convention hae ordained that all the revenue laws of the United 
States must be repealed, or that they are no longer a member of the Union. 
The Governor of that State has recommended to the Legislature the raising 
of an army to carry the secession into effect, and that he may be empowered 
to give clearances to vessels in the name of the State. iN'o act of violent 
oppo^sition to the laws has yet been committed, but such a state of things is. 
hourly apprehended ; and it is the intent of this instrument to prochiim not 
only that the duty imposed on me by the Constitution, "to take care that 
the' laws be faithfully executed," shall be performed to the extent of th« 
powers already vested in me by law, or of such other as the wisdom of Con- 
gress shall devise and entrust to me for that purpose, but to warn the citi- 
zens of South Carolina who have been deluded into an opposition to the laws 
of the danger they will incur by obedience to the illegal and disorganizinji" 



13 

ordinance of the convention ; to exhort those who have refused to support 
it to persevere in their determination to uphold the Constitution and laws 
of their country ; and to point out to all the perilous situation into which 
the good people of that State have been led, and that the course they are 
urged to pursue is one of ruin and disgrace to the very State whose rights ■ 
they affect-to support. 

Fellow-citizens of my native State, let me not only admonish you, as the 
first magistrate of our common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, 
but use the influence that a father would over his children whom he saw 
rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal language, with that paternal feel- 
ing, let me tell you my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are 
either deceived themselves, or wish to deceive you, Mark under what pre- 
tences you have been led on to the brink of insurrection and treason on 
which you stand. First, a diminution of the value of your staple commo- 
dity, lowered by over production in other quarters, and the consequeut di- 
minution in the value of your lands, were the sole effect of the tariff laws. 
The effect of those laws is confessedly injurious; but the evil was greatly 
exaggerated by the unfounded theory you were taught to believe, that its 
burdens were in proportion to your exports, not to your consumption of im- 
ported articles. Your pride was roused by the assertion that a submission 
to those laws was a state of vassalage, and that resistance to them was 
equal, in patriotic merit, to the opposition our fathers offered to the ojipres- 
sive laws of Great Britian. You were told that this opposition might be 
peaceably, might be constitutionally made ; that you might enjoy all the 
advantages of the Union, and bear none of its burdens. 

Eloquent appeals to your passions, to your State pride, to your native 
courage, to your sense of real injury, were used to prepare you for the pe- 
riod when the mask which concealed the hideous features of disunion should 
be torn off. It fell, and you were made to look with complacency on ob- 
jects which, not long since, you would have regarded with horror. Look 
back at the arts which have brought you to this state — look forward to the 
consequences to which it must inevitably lead. Look back to what was 
first told you as an inducement to enter into this dangerous course. The 
great political truth was repeated to you, that you had the revolutionary 
right of resisting all laws that were palpably unconstitutional aud intolerai 
bly oppressive — it was added that the right to nullify a law rested on the 
same principal, but that it was a peaceable remedy ! This character which 
was given to it, made you receive with too much confidence the assertions 
that were made of the unconstitutionality of the law and its oppressive 
effects. Mark, my fellow-citizens, that, by the admission of your leaders, 
the unconstitutionality must be palpable, or it will not justify either resist- 
ance or nullification 1 What is the meaning of the word palpable, in the 
sense in which it is here used ? — that which is apparent to every one ; that 
which no man of ordinary intellect will fail to perceive. Is the unconstitu- 
tionality of these laws of that description ? Let those among your leaders 
who once approved and advocated the principle of protective duties, answer 
the question ; and let them choose whether they will be considered as in- 
capable, then, of preceiving thnt which must have been apparent to every 
man of common understanding, or as imposing on your confidence and en- 
deavoring to mislead you now. 

In either case they are unsafe guides in the perilous path they urge you 
to tread. Ponder well on this circumstance, and you will know how to 
appreciate the exaggerated language they address to you. They are not 
champions of liberty, emulating the fame of our revolutionary fathers ; nor 
are you an oppressed people, contending, as they repeat to you, against 



14 

worse than colonial vassalage. You are free members of a flourishing and 
happy Union. There is no settled design to oppress you. You have in- 
deed felt the unequal operation of laws which may have been unwisely, not 
unconstitutionally, passed ; but that inequality must necessarily be remov- 
ed. At the very moment when you were madly urged on the unfortunate 
course you have begun, a change in public opinion had commenced. The 
nearly approaching payment of the public debt, and the consequent neces- 
sity of a diminution of duties, had already produced a considerable reduc- 
tion, and that too on some articles of general consumption in your State. 
The importance of this change was understood, and you were authorita- 
tively told that no further alleviation of your burdens was to be expected, 
at the very time when the condition of the country imperiously demanded 
such a modification of the duties as should reduce them to a just aod equi- 
table scale. But, as if apprehensive of the effect of this change in allaying 
your discontents, you were precipitated into the fearful state in which you 
now find yourselves. 

I have urged you to look back to the means that were used to hurry you 
on to the position you have now assumed, and forward to the consequences 
it will produce. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the condition 
of that country of which you still form an important part ! — consider its 
government, uniting in one bond of common interests and general protection 
so many different States — giving to all their inhabitants the proud title of 
American citizens — protecting their commerce — securing their literature 
and their arts — facilitating their intercommunication, defending their fron- 
tiers — and making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth ! 
Consider the extent of its territory, its increasing and happy population, 
its advance in arts which render life agreeable, and the sciences whicii ele- 
vate the mind ! See education spreading the lights of religion, humanity 
and general information into every cottage in Ibis wide extent of our ter- 
ritories and States 1 Behold it as the asylum where the wretched and the 
oppressed find a refuge and support 1 Look on this picture of happiness 
and honor, and say, we, too, are citizens of America ; Carolina is one of 
these proud States ; her arms have defended — her best blood has cemented — 
this happy Union ! And then add, if you can, without horror and remorse, 
.this happy Union we will dissolve — this picture of peace and prosperity wa 
will deface — this free intercourse we will interrupt — these fertile fields we 
will deluge with blood — the protection of that glorious flag we renounce — 
the very nanie of Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken men ! 
for what do you throw away these inestimable blessings — for what would 
you exchange your share in the advantages and honor of a Union ? For 
the dream of a separate independence, a dream interrupted by bloody con- 
flicts with your neighbors, and a vile dependence on a foreign power. If 
your leaders could succeed in establishing a separation, what would be your 
situation ? Are you united at home— are you free from the apprehension 
of civil discord, with all its fearful consequences ? Do our neigiiboring re- 
publics, every day suffering some new revolution, or contending with some 
new insurrection — do they excite your envey ? But the dictates of a high 
duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you cannot succeed. The laws 
of the United States must be executed. I have no discretionary power on 
the subject — my duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. 
Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execution, de- 
ceived you — they could not have been deceived themselves. They know 
that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, 
and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is dis- 
union ; but be not deceived by names ; disunion, by armed force is treason. 



15 

Are you really ready to incur its guilt ? If you are, on the heads of the in- 
stigators of the act be the dreadful consequences — on their heads be the dis- 
honor, but on yours may fall the punishment — on your unhappy State will in- 
evitably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon the government of your 
country. It cannot accede to the mad project of disunion, of which you 
would be the flrst victims — its first magistrate cannot, if he would, avoid the 
performance of his duty — the consequences must be fearful for you, distressing 
to your fellow-citizens here, and to the friends of good government through- 
out the world. Its enemies have beheld our prosperity with a vexation they 
could not conceal — it was a standing refutation of their slavish doctrines, 
and they will point to our discord with the triumph of malignant joy. It 
is yet in your power to disappoint them. There is yet time to show that 
the descendants of the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the Rutledges, and of the 
thousand other names which adorn the pagesof your Revolutionary history, 
will not abandon that Union, to support which so many of them fought and 
bled and died. I adjure you, as _you honor their memory — as you love the 
cause of freedom, to which they dedicated their lives — as you prize the 
peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens and your own fair fame, 
to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archives of your State the disor- 
ganizing edict of its convention — bid its members to re-assemble and pro- 
mulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which 
alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity and honor — tell them that, com- 
pared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an 
accumulation of all — declare that you will never take the field unless the 
star-spangled banner of your country shall float over you — that you will not 
be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, as 
the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your country ! — its de- 
stroyers you cannot be. .You may disturb its peace — you may interrupt 
the course of its prosperity — you may cloud its reputation for stability — 
but its tranquility will be restored ; its prosperity will return ; and the 
stain upon its national character Avil! be transferred, and remain an eternal 
blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder. 

Fellow-citizens of the United States ! The threat of unhallowed dis- 
union — the names of those, once respected, by whom it is uttered — the ar- 
ray of military force to support it — denote the approach of a crisis in our 
affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity, our politi- 
cal existence, and perhaps that of all free governments, may depend. The 
conjuncture demanded a free, a full and explicit enunciation not only of my 
intentions, but of my principles of action ; and as the claim was asserted 
of a right by a State to annul the laws of the Union, and even to secede 
from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in relation to the ori- 
gin and form of our government, and the construction I give to the instru- 
ment by which it was created, seemed to be proper. Having the fullest 
confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional opinion of my du- 
ties which has been expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your undi- 
vided support in my determination to execute the laws — to preserve the 
Union by all constitutional means — to arrest, if possible, by moderate but 
firm measures, the necessity of a recourse to force ; and if it be the will of 
Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of 
a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any 
offensive act on the part of the United States. 

Fellow-citizens ! The momentous case is before you. On your undivided 
support of your government depends the decision of the great question it 
involves, whether your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessing it 
secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt that 



16 

the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, will be such a^ 
to inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that the prudence 
the wisdom and the courage which it will bring to their defence, will trans- 
mit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children. 

May the great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with which 
he has favored ours may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, 
be disregarded and lost ; and may His wise Providence bring those who have 
produced this crisis, to see the folly before they feel the misery of civil strife ; 
and inspire a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to 
penetrate his designs, he has chosen as the onlv means of attaining the high 
destinies to which we may reasonably aspire. 

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States to be 
hereunto affixed, having signed the same with my hand. 

Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of December, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirt^^-two, and of the indepen- 
dence of the United States the fifty-seventh. 

ANDREW JACKSOiY. 
By the President : 

Edw. Livingston, Secretary of State. 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 



OP 



ANDREW JACKSON, 



TO THE 



PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



DELIYERED MARCH 4, 1837. 



TO THE PEOPLE OE THE UNITED STATES. 



Fellow Citizens : 

Being about to retire finally from public life, I beg leave to offer you my 
grateful tlianksfor the many proofs of kiudness and confidence which I have 
received at your hands. It has been my fortune, in the discharge of public 
duties, civil and military, frequently to have found myself iu difficult and 
trying situations, where prompt decision and energetic action were neces- 
sary, and where the interest of the country required that high responsibili- 
ties should be fearlessly encountered ; and it is with the deepest emotions 
of gratitude that I acknowledge the continued and unbroken confidence with 
which you have sustained me in every trial. My public life has been a long 
one, and I cannot hope that it has at all times been free from errors. But 
I have the consolation of knowing that if mistakes have been committed, 
they have not seriously injured the country I so anxiously endeavored to 
serve ; and at the moment when I surrender my last public trust, I leave 
this great people prosperous and happy ; in the full enjoyment of liberty and 
peace ; and honored and respected by every nation of the world. 

If my humble efforts have, in any degree, contributed to preserve to you 
these blessings, I have been more than rewarded by the honors you have 
heaped upon me ; and, above all, by the generous confidence with which you 
have supported me in every peril, and with which you have continued to 
animate and cheer my path to the closing hour of my political life. The 
time has now come, when advanced age and a broken frame warn me to re- 
tire from public concerns; but the recollection of the many favors you have 
bestowed upon me is engraven upon my heart, and I have felt that I could 
not part from your service without making this public acknowledgment of 
the gratitude I owe you. And if I use the occasion to offer to you the coun- 
sels of age and experience, you will, I trust, receive them with the same in- 
dulgent kindness which you have so often extended to me ; and will, at least, 
see in them an earnest desire to perpetuate, in this favored land, the bless- 
ings of liberty and equal laws. 

We have now lived almost fifty years under the constitution framed by 
the sages and patriots of the revolution. The conflicts in which the nations 
of Europe were engaged during a great part of this period; the spirit in 
which they waged war against each other; and our intimate commercial 
connections with every part of the civilized world, rendered it a time of 
much difficulty for the government of the United States. We have had our 
seasons of peace and of war, with all the evils which precede or follow a 
state of hostility with powerful nations. We encountered these trials with 
our constitution yet in its infancy, and under the disadvantages which a 
new and untried government must always feel, when it is called upon to put 
forth its whole strength, without the lights of experience to guide it, or the 
weight of precedents to justify its measures. But we have passed triumph- 
antly through all these difficulties. Our constitution is no longer a doubt- 



ful experiment; aud at the end of nearly half a century, we find that it has 
preserved unimpaired the liberties of the people, secured the rights of pro- 
perty, and that our country has improved, and is flourishing beyond any 
former example in the history of nations. 

In our domestic concerns there is everything to encourage us; and if you 
are true to yourselves, nothing can impede your march to the highest point 
of national prosperity. The States which had so long been retarded in their 
improvement by the Indian tribes residing in the midst of them, are at length 
relieved from the evil; and this unhappy race — the original dwellers in our 
land — are now placed in a situation where we may well hope that they will 
thare in the blessings of civilization, and be saved from that degradation and 
destruction to which they were rapidly hastening while they remaiued in 
the Stales; and while the safety and comfort of our own citizens have been 
greatly promoted by their removal, the philanthropist will rejoice that the 
. remnant of this ill-fated race has been at length placed beyond the reach of 
injury or oppression, and that the paternal care of the general government 
will hereafter watch over them and protect them. 

If we turn to our relations with foreign powers, we find our condition 
equally gratifying. Actuated by the sincere desire to do justice to every na- 
tion, and to preserve the blessings of peace, our intercourse with them has 
been conducted on the part of this government in the spirit of frankness, and 
1 take pleasure in saying that it has generally been met in a corresponding 
temper. DifficuUIes of old standing have been surmounted by friendly dis- 
cussion, and the mutual desire to be just; and the claims of our citizens, 
which had been long withheld, have at length been acknowledged and ad- 
justed, and satisfactory arrangements made for their final payment ; and with 
a limited, and I trust a temporary exception, our relations with every for- 
eign power are now of the most friendly character — our commerce continu- 
ally expanding and our flag respected in every quarter of the world. 

These cheering and grateful prospects, and these multiplied favors, we 
owe, under'Providcnce, to the adoption of the federal constitution. It is no 
longer a question whether this great country can remain happily united and 
flourish under our present form of government. Experience, the unerring 
test of all human undertakings, has shown the wisdom and foresight of those 
who formed it; and has proved, that in the union of these States there is a 
bure foundation for the brightest hopes of freedom, and for the happiness of 
the people. At every hazard, and by every sacrifice, this Union must be 
preserved. 

The necessity of watching with jealous anxiety for the preservation of the 
Union, was earnestly pressed upon his fellow-citizens by the Father of his 
Country, in his farewell address. He has there told us, that "while experi- 
ence shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be 
reason to distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endea- 
vor to weaken its bonds;" and he has cautioned us in the strongest terms 
against the formation of parties on geographical discriminations, as one of 
the means which might disturb our Union, and to which designing men 
would be likely to resort. 

The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy of Washington to his coun- 
trymen, should be cherished in the heart of every citizen to the latest gen- 
eration ; and, perhaps, at no period of time could they be more usefully remem- 
bered than at the present moment. For when we look upon the scenes that are 
passing around us, and dwell upon the pages of his parting address, his pa- 
ternal counsels would seem to be, not merely the offspring of wisdom and 
foresight, but the voice of prophecy foretelling events and warning us of the 
eyil to come. Forty years have passed since this imperishable document 



was given to Ins countrymen. The federal constitution was then regarded 
by him as an experiment — and he so speaks of it in his address — fjut an expe- 
riment upon tlie success of which tiiC best hopes of his country depended, 
and n'c all know tliat he was prepared to lay down his life, if necssary, to se- 
cure to it a full and a fair trial. The trial has been made. It has succeeded 
beyond the proudest hopes of those who framed it. Every quarter of this 
widely-extended nation has felt its blessings, and shared in the general pros- 
perity produced by its adoption. But amid this general prosperity and 
splendid success, the dangers of which he warned us ure becoming every 
day more evident, and the signs of evil are sufficiently apparent to awaken 
the deepest anxiety in the bosom of the patriot. We behold systematic 
efforts publicly made to sow the seeds of discord between different parts of 
the United States, and to place party divisions directly upon geographical 
distinctions; to excite the aouth against the north, and the yiortk against the 
the soufJi, and to force intp controversy the most delicate and exciting topics ; 
topics upon which it is impossible that a large portion of the Union can ever 
speak without strong emotion. Appeals, too, are constantly made to sec- 
tional interests, in order to influence the election of the chief magistrate, as 
if it were desired that he should favor a particular quarter of the country, 
instead of fulfilling the duties of his station with impartial justice to all, and 
the possible dissolution of the Union has at length become an ordinary and 
familiar subject of discussion ? Has the warning voice of Washington been 
forgotteii? or have designs already been formed to sever the Union ? Let 
it not be supposed that I impute to all of those who have taken an active 
part in these unwise and unprofitable discussions, a want of patriotism or of 
public virtue. The honorable feeling of State pride, and local attachments, 
find a place in the bosoms of the most enlightened and pure. But while 
such men iire conscious of their own integrity and honesty of purpose, they 
ougiit Lcver to forget that the citizens of other States are their political 
brethren ; and that, however mistaken they may be in their views, the great 
bod^' of them are equally honest and upright with themselves. Mutual 
suspicions and reproaches may in time create mutual hostility, and artful 
and designing men will always be found, who are ready to foment these 
fatal divisions, and to inflame the natural jealousies of different sections of 
the country. The history of the world is full of such examples, and espe- 
cially the history of republics. 

What have you to gain- by division and dissension ? Delude not your- 
selves with the belief that a breach once made may be afterwards repaired. 
If the Union is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider and 
wider, and the controversies which are now debated and settled in the halls 
of legislation, will then be tried in fields of battle, and deterniined by the 
sword. In either should you deceive yourselves with the hope, that the first 
line of separation would be the permanent one, and that nothing but harmony 
and concord would be found in the new associations formed upon the disso- 
lution of this Union. Local interests would still be found there, ond un- 
chastened ambition. And if the recollection of common dangers, in which 
the people of these United States stood side by side against the common 
foe; the memory of victories won by their united valor; the prosperity and 
happiness they have enjoyed under the present Constitution; the proud 
name they bear as citizens of this great republic; if all these recollections 
and proofs of common interest are not strong enough to bind us together as 
one people, what tie will hold united the new divisions of empire, when 
these bonds harve been broken and this Union dissevered ? The first line 
of separation would not last for a single generation; new fragments would 
be torn off; new leaders would spring up; and this great and glprjoua 



6 

repilblic would soon be broken into a multitude of petty States, vv^ithoufc 
conunerce, without credit; jealous of one another; armed for mutual ag- 
gression; loaded with taxes to pay armies and leaders; seeking aid against 
each other from foreign powers; insulted and trampled upon b}^ the nations 
of Europe, until harrassed with conflicts, and humbled and debased in 
spirit, they would be ready to submit to the absolute domijiion of any 
military adventurer, and to surrender their liberty for the sake of repose. 
It is impossible to look on the consequences that would inevitably follow 
the destruction of this government, and not feel indignant when we hear 
cold calculations about the value of ttie Union, and have so constantly 
before us a line of conduct so well calculated to weaken its ties. 

There is too much at stake to allow pride or passion to influence your 
decision. Never for a moment l)elieve that the great body of the citizens 
of any State or States can deliberately intend to do wrong. They may, un- 
der the influence of temporary excitement or mis^guided opinions, commit 
mistakes ; they may be misled for a time by the suggestions of self-interest; 
but in a community so enlightened and patriotic as the people of the United 
States, argument will soon make them sensible of their errors; and, when 
convinced, they will be ready to repair them. If they have no higher or 
better motives to govern them, they will at least perceive that their own 
interest requires them to be just to others as they hope to receive justice 
at their hands. 
, But in order to maintain the Union unimpaired, it is absolutely necessary 
/ that the laws passed by the constituted authorities should be faithfully exe- 
I cuted in every part of the country, and that every good citizen should, at 
\ all times, stand ready to put down, with the combined force of the nation, 
I every attempt at unlawful resistance, under whatever pretext it may be 
\ made, or whatever shape it may assume. Unconstitutional or oppressive 
laws may no doubt be passed by Congress, either from erroneous views or 
f the want of due consideration ; if they are within the reach of judicial 
.'authority, the remedy is easy and peaceful; and if from the character of 
( the law, it is an abuse of power not within the control of the judiciary, 
; then free discussion and calm appeals to reason and to the justice of the 
I people will not fail to redress the wrong. But until the law shall be de- 
\ dared void by the courts, or repealed by Congress, no individual, or com- 
'bination of individuals can be justified in forcibly resisting its execution. 
It is impossible that any government can continue to exist upon any other 
principles. It would cease to be a government, and be unworthy of tb« 
name, if it had not the power to enforce the execution of its own laws 
within its own sphere of action. 

It is true that cases may be imagined disclosing such a settled purpose 
of usurpation and oppression, on the part of the government, as would jus- 
1ify an appeal to arms. These, however, are extreme cases, which we 
have no reason to apprehend in a government where the power is in the 
hands of a patriotic people; and no citizen who loves his country would, 
in any case whatever, resort to forcible resistance, unless he clearly saw 
that the time had come when a freeman should prefer death to submission, 
for if such a struggle is once begun, and the citizens of one section of the 
country arrayed in arms against those of another in doubtful conflict, let 
the battle result as it may, there will be an end of the Union, and with it, 
an end to the hopes of freedom. The victory of the injured would not 
•ecure to them the blessings of liberty; they would avenge their wrongs, 
but they would themselves share in the common ruin. 

But the Constitution cannot be maintained, nor the Union preserved, in 
opposition to public feeling, by the mere exertion of the coercive powers 



eenfided to the General Government. The foundations must be laid in the 
affections of the people; in the security it gives to life, liberty, character 
and property in every quarter of the country; and in the fraternal attach- 
ment which the citizens of the several States bear to one another as mem- 
bers of one political family, mutually contributing to promote the happiness 
of each other. Hence the citizens of every State should studiously avoid 
every thing calculated to wound the scasibility or offend the just pride of 
the people of other States ; and they should frown upon any proceedings 
within their own borders likely to disturb the tranquility of their political 
brethren in other portions of the Union. In a country so extensive as the 
United States, and with pursuits so varied, the internal regulations of the 
several States must frequently differ from one another in important particu- 
lars, and this difference is unavoidably increased by the varying princi- 
ples upon which the American colonies were originally planted ; principles 
which had taken deep root in their social rehations before the Revolution, 
and therefore, of necessity influencing their policy since they became free 
and independent States. But each State has the unquestionable right to 
regulate its own internal concerns according to its own pleasure ; and 
while it does not interfere with the rights of the people of other States, or 
the rights of the Union, every State must be the sole judge of the mea- 
tures proper to secure the safety of its citizens and promote their happiness ; 
and all etibrts on the part of the people of other States to cast odium upon 
their institutions, and all measures calculated to disturb their rights of pro- 
perty, or to put in jeopardy their peace and internal tranquility, are in direct 
opposition to the spirit in which the Union was formed, and must endanger 
iia safety. Motives of philanthropy may be assigned for this unwarrantable 
interference ; and weak men may persuade themselves for a moment that 
they are laboring in the cause of humanity, and asserting the rights @f the 
human race ; but every one, upon sober reflection, will see that nothing 
but mischief can come from these improper assaults upon the feelings and 
rights of others. Rest assured, that the men found busy in this work of 
discord are not worthy of your confidence, and deserve your strongest re- 
probation. "^ 

In the legislation of Congress, also, and in every measure of the General 
Government, justice to every portion of the United States should be faith- 
fully observed. No free government can stand without virtue in the people, 
and a lofty spirit of patriotism ; and if the sordid feelings of mere selfish- 
ness shall usurp the place which ought to be filled by public spirit, the 
legislation of Congress will soon be converted into a scramble for personal 
and sectional advantages. Under our free institutions, the citizens of every 
quarter of our country are capable of attaining a high degree of prosperity 
and happiness, without seeking to profit themselves at the expense of 
others; and every such attempt must in the end fail to succeed, for the 
people in every part of the United States are too enlightened not to under- 
xtantl their own rights and interests, and to detect and defeat every effort 
to gain undue advantages over them ; and when such designs are discovered, 
it naturally provokes resentments which cannot always be easily allayed. 
Justice, full and ample justice to every portion of the United States, should 
be the ruling principle of every freeman, and should guide the deliberations 
of every public body, whether it be State or National. 

It is well known that there have always been those amongst us who wish 
to enlarge the powers of the General Government; and experience would 
seem to indicate that there is a tendency on the part of this government to 
overstep the boundaries marked out for it by the Constitution. Its legitimate 
authority is abundantly sufficient for all the purposes for which it was ere- 



8 

ated ; and its powers being expressly enumerated there can be no justifica- 
tion for claiming anything beyond them. Every attempt to exercise power 
beyond these limits should be promtly and firmly opposed. For one evil 
example will lead to other measures still more mischievous; and if the prin- 
ciple of constructive powers, or supposed advantages, or temporary circum- 
stances shall ever be permitted to justify the assumption of a power not 
given by the Constitution, the General Government will before long absorb 
all the powers of legislation, and you will have, in effect, but one consolidated 
government. From the extent of our country, its diversified interests, dif- 
ferent pursuits and different habits, it is too obvious for argument, that a 
single consolidated government would be wholly inadequate lo watch over 
and protect its interests ; and every friend of our free institutions should be 
always prepared to maintain unimpaired, and in full vigor, the rights and 
govereignty of the Stiites, and to confine the action of the General Govern- 
ment strictly to the sphere of its appropriate duties. 

There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on the Federal Govern- 
ment so liable to abuse, as the taxing power. The most productive and 
convenient sources of revenue were necessarily given to it, that it might be 
able to perform the important duties imposed upon it, and the taxes which 
it lays upon commerce being concealed from the real payer in the price of 
the article, they do not so readily attract the attention of the people as 
smaller sums demanded from them directly by the tax-gatherer. But the 
tax imposed on goods enhances by so much the price of the commodity to 
the consumer; and, as many of these duties are imposed on articles of ne- 
cessity, which are daily used by the great body of the people, the money 
raised by these imposts is drawn from their pockets. Congress has no 
right, under the Constitution, to take money from the people, unless it is 
required to execute some one of the specific powers entrusted to the govern- 
ment; and if they raise more than is necessary for such purposes, it is an 
abuse of the power of taxation, and unjust and oppressive. It may, indeed, 
happen that the revenue will sometimes exceed the amount anticipated, 
when the taxes were laid. When, however, this is ascertained, it is easy 
to reduce them ; and, in such a case, it is unquestionably the duty of the 
government to reduce them; for no circumstances can justify it in assuming 
a power not given to it by the Constitution, nor in taking away the money 
of the people, when it is not needed for the legitimate wants of the govern- 
ment. 

Plain as these principles appear to be, you will yet find that there is a 
constant effort to induce the General Government to go beyond the limits 
of its taxing power, and to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people — 
Many powerful interests are continually at work to procure heavy duties 
on commerce, and to swell the revenue bejond the real necessities of the 
public service; and the country has already telt the injurious effects of their 
combined influence. They succeeded in obtaining a tariff of duties bearing 
most oppressively on the agricultural and laboring classes of society, and 
producing a revenue that could not be usefully employed within the range of 
the pov/ers conferred upon Congress ; and, in order to fasten upon the peopl« 
this unjust and unequal system of taxation, extravagant schemes of internal 
improvtiuient were got up iu various quarters, to squander the money, and 
to purchase support. Thus, one unconstitutional measure was intended to 
be upheld by another, and the abuse of the power of taxation was to b« 
maintained by usurping the power of expending the money in internal im- 
provements. You cannot have forgotten the severe and doubtful struggl* 
through which we passed, when the Executive Department of the goverja- 
meut, by its veto, endeavored to arrest this prodigal scheme of injustice, and 



to bring back the legislation of Congress to the boundaries prescribed by the 
Constitution. The good sense and practical judgment of the people, when 
the subject was brought before them, sustained the course of the Executive; 
and this plan of unconstitutional expenditure for the purpose of corrupt in- 
fluence is, I trust, finally overthrown. 

The result of this decision has been felt in the rapid extinguishment of 
the public debt, and the large accumulation of a surplus in the treasury, not- 
withstanding the tariff was reduced, and is now very far below the amount 
originally contemplated by its advocates. But rely upon it, the design to 
collect an extravagant revenue, and to burden you with taxes beyond the 
economical wants of the government, is not yet abandoned. The various 
interests which have combined together to impose a heavy tariff, and to pro- 
duce an overflowing treasury, are too strong, and have too much at stake 
to surrender the contest. The corporations and wealthy individuals who 
are engaged in large manufacturing establishments, desire a high tariff to 
increase their gains. Designing politicians will support it, to conciliate 
their favor, and to obtain the means of profuse expenditure, for the purpose 
of purchasing influence in other quarters ; and since the people have de- 
cided that the Federal Government cannot be permitted to employ itsincorae 
in internal imprevements, efforts will be made to seduce and mislead th« 
citizens of the several States, by holding out to them the deceitful prospect 
of benefits to be derived from a surplus revenue collected by the General 
Government, and annually divided among the States. And if encouraged 
by these fallacious hopes, the States should disregard the principles of 
economy which ought to characterize every republican government, and 
should indulge in lavish expenditures exceeding their resources, they will, 
before long, find themselves oppressed with debts which they are unable to 
pay, and the temptation will become irresistible to support a high tariff, in 
order to oijtain a surplus for distribution. Do not allow yourselves, my 
feliow-ciilzens, to be misled on this subject. The Federal Government can- 
not collect a surplus for such purpose, without violating the principles of 
the Constitution, and assuming powers which have not been granted. I^ 
is, moreover, a system of injustice, and, if persisted in, will inevitably lead 
to corruption, and must end in ruin. The surplus revenue will be drawn 
from the pockets of the people, from the farmer, the mechanic, and the 
laboring classes of society; but who will receive it when distributed among 
the States, where it is to be disposed of by leading State politicians who 
have friends to favor and political partisans to gratify ? It will certainly 
not be returned to those who paid it, and who have most need of it, and are 
honestly entitled to it. There is but one safe rule, and that is, to confine 
the General Government rigidly within the sphere of its appropriate duties. 
It has no power to raise a revenue, or impose taxes, except fur the purposes 
enumerated in the Constitution, and if its income is found to exceed these 
wants, it shouid be forthwith reduced, and the burdens of the people so far 
lightened. 

In reviewing the conflicts which have take'n place between different inter- 
ests in the United States, and the policy pursued since the adoption of our 
present form of government, we find nothing that has produced such deep 
seated evil as the course of legislation in relation to the currency. The Con- 
stitution of the United States unquestionably intended to secure to the peo- 
ple a circulating medium of gold and silver. But the establishment of a J^a- 
tional Bank by Congress, with the privilege of issuing paper money receiva- 
ble in the payment of the public dues, and the unfortunate course of legislation 
in the several States upon the same subject, drove from general circulation 
the constitutional currency, and substituted one of paper in its place. 



30 

It was not easy for men eng-aged in the ordinary pursuits of business, whose 
attention had not been particularly drawn to the subject, to forsee all the 
consequences of a currency exclusively of paper; and we ought not, on that 
account, to be surprised at the facility with which laws were obtained to 
carry into effect the paper system. Honest, and even enlightened men, are 
sometimes misled by the specious and plausible statements of the designing. 
But experience has now proved the mischiefs and dangers of a paper cur- 
rency, and it rests with you to determine whether the proper remedy shall 
be applied. 

The paper system being founded on public confidence, and having of itself 
no intrinsic value, it is liable to great and sudden fluctuations; thereby ren- 
dering property insecure, and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain. 
The corporations which create the paper money cannot be relied upon to 
keep the circulating medium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, 
when confidence is high, they are tempted, by the prospect of gain, or by the 
influence of those who hope to profit by it, to extend their issues of paper 
beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands of businijss. 
And when these issues have been pushed on, from day to day, until public 
confidence is at length shaken, then a reaction takes place, and they imme- 
diately withdraw the credits they have given; suddenly curtail their issues; 
and produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the circulating me- 
dium, which is felt by the whole community. The banks, by this means, 
save themselves, and the mischievous consequences of their imprudence or 
cupidity are visited upon the public. Nor does the evil stop here. These 
ebbs and flows in the currency, and these indiscreet extensions of credit 
naturally engender a spirit of speculation injurious to the habits and char- 
acter of the people. We have already seen its etfects in the wild spirit of 
speculation in the public lands, and various kinds of stock, which, within 
the last year or two, seized upon such a multitude of our citizens, and threat- 
ened to pervade all elasses of society, and to withdraw their attention from 
the sober pursuits of honest industry. It is not by encouraging this spirit 
4,ha,t we shall best preserve public virtue and promote the true interests of 
our country. But if your currency continues as exclusively paper as it now 
is, it will foster this eager desire to amass wealth without labor; it will 
multiply the number of dependents on bank accommodations and bank 
favors ; the temptation to obtain money at any sacrifice will become stronger 
and stronger, and inevitably lead to corruption, which will find its way into 
your public councils, and destroy at no distant day, the purity of your gov- 
ernment. Some of the evils which arise from this system of paper, press 
with peculiar hardship upon the class of society least able to bear it. A 
portion of this currency frequently becomes depreciated or worthless, and 
all of it is easily counterfeited, in such a manner as to require peculiar skill 
and much experience to distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine note. 
These frauds are most generally perpetrated in the smaller notes, which 
are used in the daily transactions of ordinary business; and the losses occa- 
sioned by them are commonly tRrown upon the laboring classes of society, 
whose situation and pursuits put it out of their power to guard themselves 
from these impositions, and whose daily wages are necessary for their sub- 
sistence. It is the duty of every government so to regulate its currency as 
to protect this numerous class as far as practicable from the impositions of 
avarice and fraud. It is more especially the duty of the United States, 
where the government is emphatically the government of the people ; and 
where this respectable portion of our citizens are so proudly distinguished 
from the laboring classes of all other nations, by their independent spirit, 
their love of liberty, their intelligence, and their high tone of moral char- 



11 

acter. Their industry in peace is the source of our wealth; and their bra- 
very in war. has covered us with glory; and the Government of the United 
States will but ill discharge its duties if it leaves them a prey to such dis- 
honest impositions. Yet it is evident that their interests cannot be eifectu- 
ally protected, unless silver and gold are restored to circulation. 

These views alone, of the paper currency, are sufficient to call for imme- 
diate reform ; but there is another consideration v/hich should still more 
strongly press it upon your attention. 

Recent events have proved that the paper money system of this country 
may be used as au engine to undermine your free institutions ; and that those 
who desire to engross all power in the hands of the few, and to govern by 
corruption or force, are aware of its power and prepared to employ it. Yout 
banks now furnish your only circulating medium, and money is plenty or 
scarce, according to the quantity of notes issued by them. While they have 
capitals not greatly disproportioued to each other, they are competitors in 
business, aud uo one of them can e.xercise dominion over the rest; and al- 
though, in the present state of the currency, these banks ma}^ and do operate 
injuriously upon the habits of business, the pecuniary concerns, and the 
moral tou'O of society; yet, from their number and dispersed situation, they 
cannot combine for the purpose of political influence ; and whatever may 
be the dispositions of some of them, their power of mischief must neces- 
sarily be confined to a narrow space, and felt only in their immediate neigh- 
borhoods. 

But when the charter fer the Bank of the United States was obtained from 
Congress, it perfected the schemes of the paper system, and gave to its ad- 
vocates the position they have struggled to obtain, from the commencement 
of the Federal Government down to the present hour. The immense capital, 
and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it, enabled it to exercise despotic sway 
over the other banks in every part of the country. From its superior strength,, 
it could seriously injure, if not destro}^, the business of any of them which 
might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed for itself the power of 
regulating the currency throughout the United States. In other words, it 
asserted (and it undoubtedly possessed) the power to make money plenty or 
scarce, at its pleasure, at any time, and in any quarter of the Union, by 
controlling the issues of other banks, and permitting an expansion, or com- 
pelling a general contraction of the circtilating medium, according to its own. 
will. The other banking institutions were sensible of its strength, aud they 
soon generally became its obedient instruments, ready at all times, to exe- 
cute its mandates; and with the banks necessarily went, also that numerous 
class of persons in our commercial cities, who depend altogether on bank 
credits for their solvency and means of business ; and who are, therefore, 
obliged, for their own safety, to propitiate the favor of the money power by 
disiiuguished zeal and devotion in its service. The result of the ill-advised 
legislation which established this great monopoly was, to concentrate the 
whole moneyed power of the Union, with its boundless means of corrup- 
tion, and its numerous dependents, under the direction and command of one 
acknowledged head ; thus organizing this particular interest as one body, 
and securing to it unity and concert of action throughout the United States,, 
and enabling it to bring forward, upon any occasion, its entire and undi- 
vided strength to support or defeat any measure of the government. In the 
hands of this formidable power, thus perfectly organized, was also placed 
unlimited dominion over the amount of the circulating medium, giving it the 
power to regulate the value of property and the fruits of labor in every 
quarter of the Union; and to bestow prosperity, or bring ruin upon any- 



12 

city or section of the country, as might best comport with its own interest 
or policy. 

We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed power, thus organized, 
and with such a weapon in its hands, would be likely to use it. The dis- 
tress and alarm which pervaded and agitated the whole country, when the 
Bank of the United States waged war upon the people, in order to compel 
them to submit to its demands, cannot yet be forgotten. The ruthless and 
unsparing temper with which whole cities and communities were oppressed, 
individuals impoverished and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity 
suddenly changed into one of gloom and despondency, ought to be indeli- 
bly impressed upon the memoiy of the people of the United States. If 
such was its power in a time of peace, what would it not have been in a 
season of war, with an enemy at your doors? No nation but the fVeemen 
of the United States could have come out victorious from such a contest; 
yet, if you had not conquered, the government would have passed from the 
hands of the many to the hands of the few; and this organized money 
power, from its secret conclave, would have dictated the choice of your 
highest officers, and compelled you to make peace or war, as best suited 
their own wishes. The forms of your government, might, for a time, have 
remained; but its living spirit would have departed from it. 

The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by the bank, are some 
of the fruits of that system of policy which is continually striving to en- 
large the authority of the Federal Government beyond the limits fixed by 
the Constitution. The powers enumerated in that instrument do not con- 
fer on Congress the right to establish such a corporation as the Bank of the 
United States; and the evil consequences which followed, may warn us of 
the danger of departing from the true rule of construction, and of permit- 
ting temporary circumstances, or the hope of better promoting the public 
welfare, to influence in any degree our decisions upon the extent of the 
authority of the General Government. Let us abide by the Constitution 
as it is written, Or amend it in the constitutional mode if it is found to be 
defective. 

The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be sufficient to pre- 
vent Congress from again chartering such a monopoly, even if the Consti- 
tution did not present an insuperable objection to it. But you must remem- 
ber, my fellow citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of 
liberty ; and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the bless- 
ing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States, as well as 
in the Federal Government. The power which the moneyed interest can 
exercise, when concentrated under a single head, and with our present sys- 
tem of currency, was sufficiently demonstrated in the struggle made by the 
Bank of the United States. Defeated in the General Government, the same 
class of intriguers and politicians will now resort to the States, and endeavor 
to obtain there the same organization which they failed to perpetuate in the 
Union; and with specious and deceitful plans of public advantages, and 
State interests and State pride, they will endeavor to establish in the differ- 
, ent States, one moneyed institution with overgrown capital and exclusive 
privileges, sufficient to enable it to control the operations of the other bankp. 
Such an institution v/ill be pregnant with the same evils produced by the 
Bank of the United States, although its sphere of action is more contined, 
and in the State in which it is chartered the money power will be able to 
embody its whole strength, and to move together with undivided force to 
accomplish any object it may v^ish to attain. You have already had abun- 
dant evidence of its power to inflict injury upon the agricultural, mechanical, 



13 

and laboring classes of society; and over those whose engagements in trade 
or speculation render them dependent on bank facilities, the dominion of 
the State monopoly will be absolute and their obedience unlimited. With 
Buch a bank and a paper currency, the money power-would in a few years 
govern the State and control its measures; and if a sufficient number of 
States can be induced to create such establishments, the time will soon 
come when it will again take the field against the United States, and 
succeed in perfecting and perpetuating its organization by a charter from 
Congress 

It is one of the serious evils of our present system of banking, that ena- 
bles one class of society — and that by no means a numerous oue — by its 
control over the currency, to act injuriously upon the interests of all ihe 
others, and to exercise m*ore than its just proportion of influence in political 
affairs. The agricultural, the mechanical, and the laboring classes, have 
little or no share in the direction of the great moneyed corporations; and 
from their habits and the nature of their pursuits, they are incapable of 
forming extensive combinations to act together with united force. Such 
concert of action may sometimes be produced in a single cit}^ or in a small 
district of country, by means of personal communications with each other; 
but they have no regular or active correspondence with those who are en- 
gaged in similar pursuits in distant places; they have but little patronage 
to give to the press, and exercise but a small share of influence over it; 
they have no crowd of dependents about them, who hope to griiW rich with- 
out labor, by their countenance and favor, and who are, therefore, always 
read}^ to execute their wishes. The planter, the farmer, the mechanic and 
the laborer all know that their success depends upon their own industry and 
economy, and that they must not expect to become suddenly rich by the 
fruits of their toil. Yet these classes of society form the groat body of the 
people of the United States; they are the bone ajjd sinew of the country; 
men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws, 
and who, moreover, hold the great mass of our national wealth, although 
it is distributed in moderate amounts among the millions of freemen who 
possess it. But, with overwhelming numbers and wealth on their side, 
they are in constant danger of losing their fair influence in the government* 
and with difficulty maintain their just rights against the incessant efforts 
daily made to encroach upon them. The mischief springs from the power 
which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency, which they are 
able to control; from the multitude of corporations, with exclusive privi- 
leges, which they have succeeded in obtaining in the different States, and 
which are employed altogether for their benefit; and unless you become 
more watchful in your States, and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst 
for exclusive privileges, you will in the end, find that the most important 
powers of government have been given or bartered away, and the control 
over your dearest interests has passed into the hands of these corporations. 

The paper money system, and its natural associates, monopoly and ex- 
clusive privileges, have already struck their roots deep in the soil ; and it 
will require all your efforts to check its further growth, and to eradicate 
the evil. The men who profit by the abuses, and desire to pepetuate them, 
will continue to besiege the halls of legislation in the General Government 
as well as in the States, and will seek, by every artifice, to mislead and de- 
ceive the public servants. It is to yourselves that you must look for your 
safety, and the means of guarding and perpetuating your free institutions. 
In your hands is rightfully placed the sovereignty of the country; and to 
you every one placed in authority is ultimately responsible. It is always 
in your power to see that the wishes of the people are carried into faithful 



14 

execution, and their will, when once made known, mast sooner or later be 
obeyed. And while the people remain, as I trust the}' ever will, uneor- 
rupted and incorruptible, and continue watchful and jealous of their rights, 
the government is safe, and the cause of freedom will continue to triumph 
over all its enemies. 

But it will require steady and persevering exertions on your part to rid 
yourselves of the iniquities and mischiefs of the paper system, and to check 
the spirit of monopoly and other abuses which have sprung up with it, and 
of which it is the main support. So many interests are united to resist all 
reform on this subject, that you must not hope the conflict will be a short 
one, nor success easy. My humble efforts have not been spared, during my 
administration of the government, to restore the constitutional currency of 
gold and silver, and something, I trust, has been done towards the accom- 
plishment of this most desirable object. But enough yet remains to require 
all your energy and perseverance. The pouer, however, is in your hands, 
and the remedy must and will be applied, if you determine upon it. 

While I am thus endeavoring to press upon your attention the principles 
which I deem of vital importance in the domestic concerns of the country, 
I ought not to pass over, without notice, the important considerations 
which should govern your policy towards foreign powers. It is, unques- 
tionably, our true interest to cultivate the mo.st friendly understanding with 
every nation, and to avoid, by every honorable means, the calamities of 
war; and we shall best attain this object by frankness and sincerity in our 
foreign intercourse, by the prompt and faithful execution of treaties, and 
by justice and impartiality in our conduct to all. But no nation, however 
desirous of peace, can hope to escape occasional collisions with other pow- 
ers ; and the soundest dictates of policy require that we should place our- 
selves in a condition to assert our rights, if a resort to force should ever 
become necessary. Our local situation, our long line of seacoast, indented 
by numerous bays, witB deep rivers opening into the interior, as well as 
our extended and still increasing commerce, point to the navy as our natu- 
ral means of defence. It will, in the end, be found to be the cheapest and 
most effectual; and now is the time, in a season of peace, and with an 
■overflowing revenue, that we can, year after year, add to its strength, 
without increasing the burdens of the people. It is your true policy. For 
your navy will not only protect your rich and flourishing commerce in dis* 
tant seas, but will enable you to reach and annoy the enemy, and will give 
to defence its greatest efficiency, by meeting danger at a distance from home. 
It is impossible, by any line of fortifications, to guard every point from 
attack against a hostile force advancing from the ocean and selecting its 
object; but they are indispensable to protect cities from bombardment; 
dock yards and naval arsenals from destruction; to give shelter to merchant 
vessels in time of war, and to single ships or weaker squadrons when pressed 
by a superior force. Fortifications of this description cannot be too soon 
completed and armed, and placed in a condition of the most perfect prepar- 
ation. The abundant means we now possess cannot be applied in any 
manner more useful to the country; and when this is done, and our naval 
force sufficiently strenghtened, and our militia armed, we need not fear that 
any nation will wantonly insult us, or needlessly provoke hostilities. We 
shall more certainly preserve peace, when it is well understood that we are 
prepared for war. 

In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting counsels, I have 
brought before you the leading principles upon which I endeavored to ad- 
minister the government in the high office with which you twice honored 
me. Knowing that the path of freedom is continually beset by enemies^^ 



15 

who often assume the disguise of friends, I have devoted the last hours of 
my public life to warn you of the dangers. The progress of the United 
States, under our free and happy iastitutions, has surpassed the most san- 
guine hopes of the founders of the republic. Our growth has been rapid 
beyond all former example, in numbers, in wealth, in knowledge, and all 
the useful arts which contribute to the comforts and convenience of man ; 
and from the earliest ages of history to the present day, there never have 
been thirteen millions of people associated together in one political body 
who enjoyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of these United 
States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad ; your 
strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well 
as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, and among 
yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition, 
and inordinate thirst for power, that factions will be formed and liberty en- 
dangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may as- 
sume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest 
of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this 
favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guar- 
dians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He, 
who holds in his hands the destinies of nations, make you worthy of the 
favors he has bestowed, and enable you, with pure hearts, and pure hands, 
and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend, to the end of time, the great 
charge he has committed to your keeping. 

My own race is nearly run ; advanced age and failing health warn me 
that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events, and cease 
to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has been 
spent in a land of liberty, and that he has given me a heart to love my 
country with the affection of a son. And filled with gratitude for your con- 
stant and unwavering kindness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell, 

ANDREW JACKSON. 

Washington, March 4, 1837. 




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